Project Director J.E. Sawyer Releases Personal Fallout: New Vegas Mod

After previously discussing it on his personal Formspring page, J.E. Sawyer, project director on Fallout: New Vegas, and its Honest Hearts and Gun Runners’ Arsenal DLC, has released his own personal mod, now available at this link. The mod includes a host of balance changes and fixes, some of which he has listed on the aforementioned Formspring:

* Max level with all DLCs installed is 35.
* XP rate is halved.
* Base player health is quartered and level-gained health is reduced by 25%.
* Base Carry Weight from 150 to 50 (related perks/things have also been adjusted).
* Energy Weapon ammo weighs less than its nearest equivalent Guns ammo.
* Energy Weapon durability is in the same ballpark as Guns durability.
* Medium Armor has a small amount of DR proportional to its DT.
* Heavy Armor has even more DR proportional to its DT.
* Power Armor does not require a perk, but if you have the perk, the weight of the armor is essentially negated.
* Karma/Alignment values adjusted all over.
* H2O/FOD/SLP rates doubled, but the first threshold is moved from 200 to 400 (statuses roll over ever 150 after).
* Water and Food drop rates on NPCs is dramatically lower. It is difficult to stay out of Dehydration/Starvation by looting enemies.
* Water/Nuka-Cola/Sunset Sarsaparilla heal much less, but now all restore H2O (alcohols will as well, but at lowered values).
* Default Stimpaks are uncommon. A new variant, Stimpak, Expired is the default. It is not that great.
* The player’s Workbench recipe now makes Stimpak, Homemade. It is better than Expired, worse than default Stimpaks, and has the PE penalty from Healing Powder.
* All Stimpaks have weight.
* Pre-Order items have been adjusted to be more well-balanced and not worth that much if you rush to Chet’s to trade them in.
* A bunch of fixes I couldn’t make during development because of load order conflicts, time, etc. E.g.: Automatic Rifle spread re-adjustment, putting the Police Pistol on the Cowboy List, Bozar on Grunt, Junk Rounds are now actual ammo variants you can make, etc.
* Some other stuff.

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* fKarmaModKillingEvilActor from 100 to 5
* fKarmaModKillingVeryEvilActor from 2 to 30
* All (known) Feral Ghouls set to Neutral alignment
* Colonel Moore Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Colonel Hsu Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Dam Centurion Alignments changed from Evil to Neutral
* Doctor Usanagi Alignment changed to Very Good
* Dixon Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Jean-Baptiste Cutting Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Gloria Van Graff Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Alice McLafferty Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Alice McBride Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Squatter Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* The King’s Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Contreras’ Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Westside Citizens and Militia Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* Gomorrah Prostitutes Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* 1E Junkies’ Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* Michelle and Samuel’s Alignments changed from Neutral to Good

…
Why can’t you just add your changes to the game in an official patch?

The short technical reason is “.esm inter-dependencies” and “load order errors”. Sorry.

In addition to technical reasons, some of the mechanics changes make the game significantly more difficult (base health / stim changes) or at least more of a hassle (carry weight, stims having weight, H2O/SLP/FOD rate increase). I’d rather have people opt-in to those changes than make them the default in a patch.

Finally, the game’s over. The ship has sailed. No one is working on it anymore. No testers, nothing. This mod is just me working in my free time. If I horribly botch something, you can just un-check the mod and go on your way.

Do you plan to reintroduce the armored vault 21 jumpsuit in your mod? If so, would it be by crafting or found?

Yes. It is for sale in Sarah’s store at Vault 21. Both it and the Armored Vault 13 Jumpsuit now use the RepairVaultSuit list and have 200 CND. The Armored Vault 21 Jumpsuit grants 12 DT, +1 LK, and costs 2000 caps.

Will your mod add any removed/unfinished quests?

No.